The sun was about ready to set by the time I arrived back in Li Wan Province.

  My Dantian was half drained from all the rapid flying, but I knew there were miles to go yet before I could rest. From the air I could see clearly the two bubbles of protected area created by Kelsey’s Axe and mine. And she was smart enough to spread them far enough apart, so that they protected as much area as possible. I was glad to see that the capital had fared well from the night before. Fires were extinguished, troops were at a defense line just outside the city and barricades were erected throughout the streets of the city itself.

  I flew down to the epicenter, just outside the Omni Gate and found my family waiting for me there. A tent was now set up, surrounded by a small group of imperial guards and officials who looked to be working with Zin Tai.

  But seeing my wife was the only thing I cared about right now.

  I spotted Fia gazing up into the sky and waving to me already.

  “Max!” she cried with alarm as she ran to me, and it was only then that I realized I was covered head to toe in dried demon blood.

  “Don’t worry,” I said as I embraced her gingerly. “I’m fine. Where’s Bryce?”

  “With mother,” she said, looking back towards the tent. “He’s alright.”

  I then greeted the rest of my friends.

  Kelsey was there beaming at me and bursting with Frenzy, evidence that she’d had quite the workout while I was gone. Blue Rose, standing right next to her, had signs of combat as well with fresh cuts on her arms and face. Master Hei Dong was off to the side, speaking with the group of city officials along with Ling Wei, Jian Yi and Master Zin Tai. I then spotted Mal’Kira and Tu’lok walking amongst the front lines of what was left of the city militia below, awaiting the next demon attack.

  “It’s good to see you guys,” I said. “So what I miss?”

  Blue Rose and Kelsey then proceeded to fill me in on the happenings since morning. Once dawn arrived, Master Hei Dong and Ling Wei rallied what was left of the government, declaring a sort of martial law. Civilians were corralled within the protective zones while every able-bodied cultivator was enlisted to mount a defense on the front lines.

  They’d manage to save nearly the entire city with only a few areas being badly damaged. It was quite impressive considering it was easily ten times the size of Jurin. But this was only day one and while the militia could protect the city from the demons, only my auras could protect the people from the cosmic effects of the Bloodmoon itself.

  “How are things back home?” Kelsey asked.

  “Not as good as here,” I said with a grimace and then relayed the details, including all the people we had lost. “The attacks will keep coming, but I’ve found a way to fight against it. Slowly. When I’m done defending here, I’ll head back.”

  “You can’t keep doing this, Max,” Fia said with concern in her eyes. “Have you even slept?”

  “No time,” I said.

  She shook her head at me. “Going back and forth like this. It’s not good. You’ll burn out.”

  I nodded with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “Yeah, but what’s got to be done, has to be done. I’ll be alright. I can keep this up for a while, but we do need something permanent.”

  “Like aetherite,” Blue Rose said.

  “Or Corrupted Steel,” Kelsey added. “Like, a lot of it.”

  They were right about that, and Du Gok Bhong had plenty of both materials.

  “Where’s Zin Tai?” I asked. “I need to talk with him about getting to Du Gok Bhong.”

  “What?” Fia said. “Max, we’re in a crisis here! How could you even be thinking about that?”

  “I know, but if the princess was able to do something like this out of spite, then that bastard Tai Su Long might do the same thing there. And they have the materials we need to protect us.”

  Fia sighed and rested a hand on my forearm. “You can’t be in two places at once, Max. And we need you here now. Du Gok Bhong will have to wait.”

  My Flame burned with impotence and indignation.

  Fia was right of course.

  Both Lunalah and Tai Su Long had pulled a fast one on me.

  It wasn’t enough now to just stabilize the Earth, I needed to get the heck out of dodge and protect my interest at Ling Zept as well. And every second I wasn’t there was an opportunity for Tai Su Long to seed disaster.

  “We need Max here but not literally here,” Blue Rose said and Fia looked at her oddly.

  “What I mean is, you have Kel Zhi and I here in Li Wan,” Blue Rose said. “We can both resist the effects of the Bloodmoon. And we can defend the capital with the amount of troops we have. You’d be better off heading back to protect Jurin.”

  She was right, but Jurin needed more than just protection.

  They needed someone to rebuild like they’d done here.

  “Alright, call everyone together quickly,” I said. “We need to make a plan.”

  *   *   *

  Within five minutes we rounded up the team along with what city officials were left, including a few captains who made up the command of the city guard. I explained to them how I was able to lessen the effects of the Bloodmoon, which took everyone by surprise, except perhaps Kelsey.

  “You can accomplish such a thing?” Zin Tai asked. “I would truly like to know how.”

  I waved a hand at him dismissively. “It’s complicated. But the point is, I’ll need to stay on top of this until we can get the materials we need to defend against the rays of the Bloodmoon.”

  “There is always plan B,” Kelsey said.

  I glanced at her with a raised brow. “What’s that?”

  “How we survived,” she said with a hint of pride. “We take it old school and head underground. It won’t be pretty, but it will protect normal people from the Bloodmoon.”

  That caused a murmur of discussion, but she wasn’t wrong.

  “Putting families down in the sewers?” Ling Wei asked. “Is that wise?”

  “Not the sewers,” I said, thinking back to my time in Jurin and the underground headquarters of the Fire Bird Clan. “Deeper than that. The old subway.”

  “What’s a Xu Bi Wei?” Zin Tai said and I nearly laughed at his Yee pronunciation of the word.

  “Ancient tunnels used by things called ‘trains’,” Kelsey answered for me. “Like carts that moved people around.”

  “Underground?” Zin Tai said. “Why? Were there dangers above?”

  “Well, we couldn’t fly like you guys. And floating cities wasn’t a thing to expand.”

  “The point is we can protect the population if we can get into those tunnels,” I said. “Great thinking, Kel Zhi.” That then made me think of something else. “There may be other people who found refuge in the other provinces the same way. We need to go check.”

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  “Hey,” Fia said. “You can only save one city at a time, Max.”

  “She’s right, bro,” Kelsey said in English. “Even mom and Yu Li are going to have to wait till we sort this mess out. But they’ll be safe in the village. Safer than being in Jurin even. Just stop in and tell her what’s going on for me, okay.”

  I blew out a sigh and nodded. “Yeah, I will.”

  “You should go back to Jurin like Blue Rose said.” Fia patted me on the forearm again. “We’ll be alright here until things are safe back home. Just focus on what you need to do.”

  It didn’t feel good leaving her again, but the logic made sense.

  “There’s one more thing we need back home,” I said and then looked to Jian Yi. “I need you to come back with me. The city is in a mess and I need to leave someone competent in charge.”

  “So long as I can survive the journey,” she said without hesitation. “I’ll need Tu’lok also, though. He and Mal’Kira did a great job of rallying the soldiers here. I’ll need the same back home.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Find a skiff then. I can use my aura to protect you both from the Bloodmoon as we cross into the night.”

  Tu’lok nodded. “I’m on it.”

  “We’ll leave after the first couple of waves,” I said. “Just to make sure.”

  Kelsey chuckled. “Still don’t trust we can handle it, big bro?” She then nudged Blue Rose. “Let’s go show him, sis.”

  We spent a few more minutes planning the details and then I joined the troops along with Kelsey and Blue Rose on the front lines. As the Bloodmoon rose and the first wave of demons hit, I got the distinct sense that my battle on the surface of the moon had made a difference.

  I flew overhead with [Ride the Lightning] and [Wrath of a Million Slain Souls] to thin the wave before it crashed into the defense line. Kelsey and Blue Rose made short work of what was left and even the soldiers seemed more emboldened now as they charged right in.

  Two waves later I finally left them to it and joined Jian Yi and Tu’lok in the skiff.

  “Head North, not West,” Jian Yi said. “We can fly over the Northern pole much faster.”

  I trusted her geography far more than mine and once they were securely inside, I used [Ride the Lightning] to push the skiff along at supersonic speed. We arrived at what had to be mid-day, cutting the time significantly, just as Jian Yi had predicted.

  The place was very much in disarray when we finally got to the central square where Zi Tien was still dutifully manning my Phalanx Glaive and trying to remain in control, but with my return everyone looked to me for guidance again.

  “He’s back, thank the heavens!”

  “We’ve lost everything, Marshal! What do we do?”

  “Where do we go now?”

  “It will be night soon.”

  “We all can’t live in this bubble!”

  The pleas were even more desperate than before and the amount of people seemed to have doubled since I’d left, evidence that more survivors had been found. But as good as that was, that only made the present and future situation more dire.

  “Listen up!” I shouted and then pointed to Jian Yi. “The Vice Warden Jian Yi has now been promoted to Warden. She will see to the rebuilding of Jurin and the safety of the people. Listen to her as you would me. I’ll be protecting the city from the demons at night. Jian Yi, they’re all yours.”

  With that Jian Yi took charge as per normal, issuing no nonsense commands that had all the various sects pulling together.

  “Our first order of business is gaining access to the lower tunnels,” she said. “The young and wounded will be secured first. Tu’lok will marshal the defense of the city walls. We don’t have much time. Move quickly.”

  Echoes of her orders came next, and like magic everyone got busy, racing against the sun.

  “You should get some rest,” Jian Yi said to me as everyone departed. “We won’t need you till nightfall.”

  She was probably right, but I had one more place to visit first.

  *   *   *

  I left Jurin and headed into the wild, crossing the distance to find the village and the harmonic resonance of Threja’s Sword. The thunder of my [Lightning Walk] preceded me, and the entire community was gathered in the square to greet me by the time I arrived.

  “Chun!” Yu Li was the first to embrace me, followed by not so little Su Ling.

  “Uncle Max!”

  I pulled them both into my arms, hugging them deeply. Again, it had been six whole years since I’d seen them. My sister and niece. “Man, it’s great to see you guys.”

  “Where’s everyone else?” Susan asked, looking worried. “Where’s Kelsey?”

  I gave her a quick hug as well. “Other side of the planet.”

  “What?” she said shocked.

  Colonel Harris gave me a handshake in greeting, but with a grimace. “What happened, kid? Did everything go to plan or what?”

  They hadn’t been updated since I’d sent the letter sending for Fia, I guessed.

  “A lot’s happened. Good and bad. I’ll fill you all in.”

  *   *   *

  Susan refused to let me utter a single word before she got some food inside of me. Only after the aroma of chili and beans hit me, did my stomach growl with a vengeance, reminding me that I had been running on nothing but Frenzy and adrenaline for nearly two days now.

  I chowed down on the spicy home cooked meal while I relayed everything that had transpired on the core worlds, from earning my title as a Duke, right up to returning home and finding Lunalah had destroyed 90% of our world again with her swift departure.

  “We had no idea all this was going on,” Yu Li said once I’d finished. She then looked down at Su Ling. “Are we still safe here?”

  “More than anywhere else, to be honest,” I said. “The sword will protect you as always. But there’s more that I need to do to protect what’s left here. As soon as I can, I’ll bring you all to the city.” I then sighed. “This wasn’t the happy homecoming I had promised you all. But I’ll make it right.”

  Harris clapped me on the shoulder. “Hey. You’ve done more than you know. You’ve restored our world. Our dignity. We came back from the brink of destruction once. We can do it again.”

  His outpouring of confidence and lemonade soothed my soul.

  “Thanks Colonel,” I said, looking to the fading sky. “It’ll be dark soon. Time to get back to work.”

  I said my goodbyes and especially relayed Kelsey’s message to her mom.

  “She’s doing good,” I said. “I’ll go check on her in the morning.”

  Susan huffed out a laugh. “You say that like she’s just down the road or something. Amazing that you can circle the entire planet like it’s nothing now. You really have come a long way, Max. I’m glad I got to know you before you became Superman.”

  I chuckled at the old reference, but I guess she wasn’t wrong.

  As a Lesser Deity Realm cultivator, I was basically on that level now.

  “Keep us all safe, Max,” she said, giving me a final embrace. “I know you won’t let us down.”

  As I flew off and prepared for another long night of battle a new thought occurred. I’d been spending most of my time circling the globe just like Susan had said. But I had access to the Chainmaiden right inside my pocket dimension now. The thought of using the gates as not just a means to accessing the moon’s surface, but transporting myself across the Earth excited me.

  I just had to figure out how.

  I quickly got into my position on the front lines at Jurin a few hours before sunset and slipped into the spiritual realm to access my Inner World. I materialized within the Chainmaiden’s core and drew her attention with a shout.

  “I’Xan’Dra! Tell me how to use these things as portals. Can I send my physical body through them?”

  She gave me a chuckle that sounded like [Indifference]. “I serve only the Exalted One, Husk. As I told thee past hence, I shalt not aide thee.”

  It was the answer I was expecting. But while she wouldn’t help me, she didn’t seem too concerned about stopping me either. Like she’d just given up on life or something. That was all the more reason to get to Chief Muraboshi to see if I could cleanse her core and turn her back into a normal person again.

  One that would help me.

  Still, even if I couldn’t use the gates to traverse physically, I could still use them to be in two places at once. So long as I found the right gate. I spent the next hour doing just that, bouncing to the surface level of the moon and clearing out demons by the boat load.

  But I spared destroying the gate crystals now.

  I almost wished I hadn’t destroyed any of them before.

  I was stupid to think of them as only a means of attacking the Earth, but now they could be key to helping protect it as well. I used my acute senses to home in on the resonance of Kelsey’s axe and Flame. Within minutes I picked up on the trail and entered a gate leading to the surface.

  Once back within the darkness of the Spiritual Realm, I projected my [Spectral Form] into the real world and saw the night sky appear above, radiating with the hue of the Bloodmoon. The last time I’d done this I was crossing billions of miles, but now this was like making a local call. My Dantian barely depleted as I made my way towards Li Wan and the conflict on the front lines.

  I found Kelsey and Blue Rose still at it, hammering through a wave of demons while rallying the soldiers behind them. I swooped in with my astral form, taking out a huge chunk of the demons with [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls].

  Both Blue Rose and Kelsey looked up at me with shock.

  Then came a brief moment of elation, before Kelsey gave me a rude hand gesture.

  “I told you we got it, old man! Stop stealing our thunder!”

  As I flew down to them, I could sense their lemonade.

  “Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” Kelsey asked.

  “Not yet,” I said. “But I will in a minute. I hope.”

  As I maintained my spirit and spectral form in Li Wan Province, I dove back into my minds eyes to open my real eyes back in Jurin. A small window opened up as I saw the sun fading and the Bloodmoon on the rise.

  It was multitasking to the extreme, but I didn’t need to do too much with my real body besides maintain [Sacred Soul Shield] for the troops and blast [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls] every now and again. As the first wave of demons charged from the darkness in Jurin, I did just that. It was weird. Like I was controlling my own body externally.

  But I did it.

  The demons screamed and burned as I unleashed my technique and I used the [Bloodlust] of their demise to further fuel my multitasking. I then did the same with my spectral form in real time in Li Wan, taking out an approaching wave of demons with [Lightning Kiln of Fury].

  “Are you doing it?” Blue Rose asked. “Just like back on Fhae I’ung?”

  “Pretty much,” I said. “But I’m not in as much of a trance back in my body like I was before.”

  Kelsey just shook her head with a smile. “Takes you to come up with something as crazy as this. But like I said. We got it. So spend most of your time on the other side.”

  I laughed. “Okay ‘big’ sis.”

  I left them to go thin out the waves further out from the front line while maintaining the same in Jurin. It was a mental and spiritual workout, but pushing myself to the limit like this was just what I needed. I cultivated the Frenzy from my kills while enduring the Bloodmoon and protecting my home. All at the same time.

  There was still a heck of a lot of demons to kill before I could declare the Earth safe again. But I’d managed to double my speed now. Both in execution and cultivation. I was tired as hell but I didn’t care.

  I’d unlocked a new level of progression.

  And I wouldn’t stop until we had an all clear.